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Arabian "Unicorn" Leaps Out of Near Extinction

Arabian Oryx at the U.S. National Zoo's Center for Reproduction and Conservation in Front Royal, Virginia.

Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic

It's no fantasy—the so-called Arabian unicorn is alive and well in Middle Eastern deserts, conservationists have announced.

A frequent muse for Arabic poetry and paintings, the Arabian oryx resembles a unicorn in profile, when its two long horns appear to fuse into one.

But it seemed the hardy antelope was headed for an entirely fictional existence in 1972, when only six animals existed in the wild.

Five of the remaining antelopes were either killed or taken into captivity over the course of the year, and the last wild "unicorn" was shot in Oman in 1972—capping decades of uncontrolled hunting for food and sport.

The oryx's comeback is due to a wide-ranging alliance of conservation groups, governments, and zoos that worked to save the species by breeding a captive "world herd"—descendants of the last wild animals captured in the 1970s, as well as royal stock from the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1982 conservationists started reintroducing small Arabian oryx populations from this captive herd into protected areas where hunting is illegal.

Though the release process was largely trial and error—a whole population of animals died after one attempt in Jordan, for example—"we've learned a lot about carrying out reintroductions successfully," Hilton-Taylor said.

Thanks to the program, the Arabian oryx was upgraded to "endangered" by 1986, a status the species held until this latest upgrade.